Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Shooting Gazette

E.J. CHURCHILL beat off strong competition to win the Shooting Ground of the Year at the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association awards at the Belfry Hotel & Resort in February. The Buckinghamshire-based shooting ground was voted for by CPSA members from a shortlist of three contenders that also featured Bywell Shooting Ground in Northumberland and Sporting Targets Ltd in Bedfordshire. Victoria Tetley, E.J. Churchill’s business development manager, said: “We had an incredible year last year, hosting two World Championships, including the CPSA World English Sporting Championships. This award just tops everything off. The team at the ground are the reason that we have won this award and it will sit in pride of place back at the lodge.” Nick Fellows, chief executive of the CPSA, said: “I’d like to congratulate E.J.…

MAY 3–6 Dates Purdey will open its doors during London Craft Week MAY 19 Date for the British Deer Society-backed “Walk 4 Wildlife” £35,000 Amount loaned to Clevedon Wildfowling Association by the Wildlife Habitat Trust to purchase 13.80 acres of land 23 Number of manufacturers signed up to BASC members' car discount scheme £180 Price of entry onto Lady’s Wood Shooting School’s Introduction to Game Shooting Masterclass, running between May and August £50,000 Grant awarded to the Wildlife Habitat Conservation Trust by BASC…

1. THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND Quite a few years ago whilst loading, I saw the duke shooting at Lambton Park. It was jaw dropping and stayed with me ever since. Plus I would not turn to down a return invite to Alnwick - where we had a superb boundary day once. 2. A GWCT DONOR Perhaps now more than ever, our sport needs top ambassadors, promoters and ‘protectors’. The GWCT does fantastic, all too often unsung work. Peg 2 on my team would go to the highest paying donor to GWCT funds. 3. WILL GARFIT I read with envy, and an itchy trigger finger, Will Garfit’s Shooting Gazette articles about his pigeon shooting forays – without doubt my favourite shooting quarry. Hopefully I could pick up some helpful tips from…

Q. Is there any legal reason I can’t shoot my dogs when they are old and the other option is taking them to the vets to be put down? A. The dog is your property and you have the ultimate decision over what happens to it, e.g. instruct a vet to destroy it whether it be old, ill, savage or not. Section 9(4) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 provides that “Nothing in this section applies to the destruction of an animal in an appropriate and humane manner”. A bullet or shot charge from a cartridge firearm if directed to the brain causes instant death and ipso facto is humane – if carried out competently. That is fact. Whether such a way of destroying an animal is appropriate is subjective…

Shooting is the same as catching a ball I have been shooting for close on 65 years and don’t see any lead at all. Shooting is the same as catching a ball. You don’t look at your hand; you just do it without thinking. Shooting is just the same, but you must not see your barrels at all. If you do you will miss. If you can mount your gun so it is pointing where you are looking, which is at the bird, lead will be automatic. Mount your gun and keep swinging the same speed as the bird and your gun will be the right distance in front of the bird. Next time you see a plane flying over you, make out you want to catch it and see…

TRAVEL The farmhouse meeting venue is just a mile south of Tregoyd village which in turn is four miles south of the famous little town of Hay-on-Wye. It’s only a few miles west of the England-Wales border and the best way to get there from most directions is to drive to Ross-on-Wye on the M50 and then head north west to Hay. Or you can come off the M5 at Worcester and drive via Hereford. STAY Teams who want the atmosphere of a traditional shooting party should consider the luxury of Felin Newydd house, which offers exclusive use of its nine bedrooms and is perfectly situated for back-to-back days at Tregoyd and Llwyn Madoc. Two other excellent options are Foyles of Glasbury and The Swan at Hay which both cater…

One of the rewards of writing a monthly article for Shooting Gazette is the feedback I get from readers. Occasionally I receive a letter or email from someone who owns one of the guns I write about, or at other times a reader gives me some useful information which then provides the basis for a future article. For January I wrote an article entitled A Gun Case Fit For A V.C. and as one of the separate panels, I mentioned that I had come across in the Alexander Henry ledgers a rifle built for a “one armed man”. The one armed man was William Warrand who lost his arm in the Indian Mutiny and I surmised what this rifle must have looked like. Upon publication I quickly received an email…

There is always plenty of noise around finding the right bore size for your sporting shotgun, with a seemingly inexorable trend towards smaller and smaller guns for those who wish to be considered ‘serious’ shots. Indeed, I am guilty of adding to this cacophony; more than once on these pages I have extolled the virtues of a small bore gun in the field. In fact, I described the 16 bore version of the Rizzini Artemis I tested back in the July 2016 issue as ‘simply superb’ to shoot and still rank it amongst the very finest of all the guns I have tested. However, a common factor has bound together the majority of the small bore guns I have tested for Shooting Gazette, namely they might all have been considered…

The Mitre from C. Riggs & Co. Ltd. of London (1900); the Bishop from C. Riggs & Co. Ltd. of London (1910); the Gate from C. Riggs & Co. Ltd. of London (1900); and the Cleanor from E.J. Woollard of Waltham Cross (1900). The Metcalfe’s Special from R. Metcalfe of Richmond (1910); the Special Smokeless from R. Metcalfe of Richmond (1918); the Special Smokeless from W.R. Hind of Whitehaven (1900); and the Beacon from Wilkinson of Penrith (1927) The Smokeless Special from John Rowlatt of Wellingborough (1919); the Pheasant from John Rowlatt of Wellingborough (1919); the Rabbit from Alfred H. Rutt of Northampton (1900); and the Sixteen Rabbit from Alfred H. Rutt of Northampton (1900). BRASS CARTRIDGES FOR A .410 Here we have a box of 25 unused Eley “Almac”…

“What does seem clear is dogs destined to be agreeable companions need the sort of training they don’t get.” Spring should be upon us as you read this and the postseason break will be giving way to thoughts of training the young entry and, perhaps, setting about some work in the garden. Gardening and gundogs: the words don’t just trip lightly off the tongue, the connections go well beyond their moderately alliterative quality. The careful preparation of ground, the feeding, mulching, pruning, to say nothing of a host of other operations that together add up to what we call ‘good husbandry’ have their obvious counterparts in the training of a shooting dog. Patience and thorough preparation are everything. Annuals may be flashy: but their glory is necessarily short-lived. Hardy perennials,…

A TWO-YEAR-old bitch from Cheshire has won the Kennel Club 16-dog novice cocker spaniel field trial, held at Stean in Yorkshire by kind permission of Lord Vestey and the kind arrangement of Ian Openshaw. The judges at the trial were S. Seward, A. Hopkins-Young, D. Sutherland and K. Ward. Glenugie’s Prospect, known as "Koko" and owned by Jason Waldron from Winsford, was awarded first place at the competition. Jason said: “It is an amazing feeling and I am thrilled to have won today with Koko.’’ For more information about field trials and working gundogs, visit thekennelclub.org.uk/fieldtrials. Results 1 J. Waldron with Glenugie’s Prospect 2 (& Guns’ Choice) S. Burman with Chyknell Anna 3 R.M. Kay with Starry Skye of Farlavale 4 S.D. Winspear with Kiltonbeck Helga CoM S.D. Winspear with…

There are some retrieves that will be with you until the day you die. One of mine wasn’t with my dog but with my husband’s bitch; he was going to be away judging and couldn’t run her so I was the designated handler. The trial was at Ganton in Yorkshire, a grand estate, so I knew we would be in for wonderful ground and some testing retrieves. It was the first time I had run the bitch in a competition and at that stage she wasn’t a field trial champion, that would come a month later. It was an early October trial and we were enjoying an Indian Summer. The first day went really well and all of us that were through to the second day had already had five…

THE KENNEL Club’s gundog working test, sponsored by Eukanuba, will return to the Chatsworth House Estate this summer, from June 14 - 18, and will be hosting a number of tests and gundog activities for spaniels, retrievers and HPR breeds. The event, regarded as a highlight in the working gundog calendar, will begin on the Wednesday with a special field trial training day designed for spaniels, retrievers and HPR breeds. The popular International Retriever Team Event, where invited teams from all over Europe will compete with their best dogs, will take place on the Thursday and Friday. With more international teams expected than ever before, this event is set to kick-start a friendly but competitive atmosphere and spectators are welcome to come along to watch the different nations compete for…

THE EAST Anglian Game & Country Fair comes to Euston Estate, Suffolk, on April 22 – 23 and Shooting Gazette has 10 sets of family tickets to give away. It’s all change and no change as this hugely popular event moves to its new home only 30 minutes from Norwich, its central location making it easy to reach from the rest of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. There’ll be something to tempt all ages and interests across the fair’s programme of demonstrations, have-ago events, competitions and workshops, with appearances from instructors representing John Bidwell’s High Lodge, the Mid Norfolk Gun Dog Club, Ye Olde Redtail Falconry Display, Fenland Bushcraft and a host of familiar faces in the Game Fair Country Kitchen, including Rachel Green and Chris Coubrough. Visitors with a…

How were you introduced to game shooting? "We had a gloomy old keeper at Cranborne in Dorset. One of his deputies used to take me out pigeon shooting. I missed most of them but, when I did hit one, the keeper would just shake his head." What shotgun did you learn to shoot with and what do you use now? "I learned to shoot with an ancient Cogswell & Harrison, a 20 bore with no ejectors. It had a lovely balance to it, and it’s still around. My own children learned to shoot with it. During the war, my great-grandfather gave all the guns to the Home Guard, and of course those never came back. Luckily my father bought a job-lot of old Purdeys and a Boss after the war,…

Rabbit pancetta & wild garlic risotto Ingredients • 4 long rabbit saddles (8 fillets)• 250g pancetta• 400g basic cooked risotto• 50g wild garlic• 10g chopped chives• Cornish sea salt• Milled black pepper Method Remove the fillets from the saddles and wrap them tightly in the pancetta. Season the rabbit and sear in a hot pan for two minutes each side. Place into a hot oven and roast for two minutes at 220°C. Remove from the oven then allow to rest for five minutes. Fold the wild garlic through the hot risotto and season well, then place into serving bowls. Slice the rabbit once its rested and place on top of the risotto. Sprinkle over the chopped chives and serve with wild garlic flowers if available.…

“I have a different relationship with them now. Catching woodcock to ring them is really hunting.” So Owen, what’s on your easel at the moment? "I’m just finishing a little study of a woodcock’s head. It’s a commission for a young lad who has gone off to university to study zoology. He came out woodcock ringing with me last year." How long have been involved with the ringing of woodcock? "Since 2007. That was the first winter, getting trained to get my BTO permit for woodcock, so it has been quite a few years. I think it is well over 1,500 woodcock caught in that time. It’s quite a lot of birds, isn’t it?" What’s the quirkiest you’ve caught? "I’m waiting to catch a Russian or other foreign ringed woodcock.…

I am writing on a subject that many beaters would probably agree on, and that is the subject of guns taking so much time to set up in the field. Whether it’s dawdling towards their peg, stopping for a conversation with everyone on the way, or just not even being ready when on the peg, this is a constant problem on our shoot. And more often than not, while this vital time is being wasted by the people who are supposed to be pulling the trigger, a big flush of birds will fly over them. Sometimes, they react too late and one shot is fired and missed completely, sometimes they don’t react at all and, even worse, sometimes the keeper and the beaters get the blame for jumping the gun.…

“It’s a long way to drive a puppy the first time they have even been in a car, and didn't we know it...” This time last year we were grappling with a new arrival from Perthshire. We collected Bracken, our 10-week-old black labrador bitch, at 9am on Easter Sunday and drove 360 miles home with her. Why did we go to so much effort? Couldn’t we have found a new dog a bit closer to home? Well, yes of course we could have, but she happens to be the niece of our existing six-year-old bitch. And when I got the text from Ernie to let me know the new litter was on the way there was no hesitation. We had discounted the idea of having our own litter so here…

“I am no ballistics geek who spends evenings in a pub arguing one cartridge against another.” A recent question from a reader asked what cartridges I used for pigeon shooting. The answer is simple: Gamebore Velocity, 28gram loaded with No.7½ shot. But the explanation for my choice is more complicated and requires some explanation. I am no cartridge or ballistics geek who spends long evenings in a pub arguing one cartridge against another. The fact is all cartridges on the market today have to be good because the bulk of a cartridge manufacturer’s production is aimed at the clay shooter and competitors, at whatever level, would not tolerate a poor or inconsistent cartridge. The quality of all the main brands is excellent with good shot, scientifically improved powders and wadding…

This lovely little gun is the best ‘off the shelf’ Rizzini make before we head into the realm of bespoke products and spiralling associated costs. It is based on the Italian manufacturer’s own inertia-driven single selective trigger over-under action but properly scaled down to 28 bore. Our test gun has had exhibition-grade wood used for the stock and fore-end and it shows, with a nice strong grain through the hand and some really good finishing on display. There is plenty of wood left in the push-rod fore-end Rizzini are known for, as there has to be since the gun uses the usual Italian ejector system with the springs behind the ejectors. This will ensure very strong ejection, even with the small 28 bore cartridges. Barrels are multichoke as standard and…

In last month’s issue, I touched on how people see lead. This caused a lot of interest, so in this issue I am going to attempt to shed a little more light on lead or forward allowance. Once you have understood how you see lead, the next logical step is to understand how we use lead pictures and improve them. There are many different theories behind lead and how we use it. I am a big believer that the majority of regular shooters use subconscious lead pictures, i.e. we see lead pictures on a particular target or bird and then subconsciously store these pictures in our brain which we then use again when we see a similar target. USE YOUR MENTAL IMAGE LIBRARY Many shooters use old lead pictures as…

THE GOLDEN Retriever Club of Northumbria held a 24 dog two-day a.v. open retriever qualifier field trial at Callaly Castle, Whittingham, Northumberland by kind permission of Mr R. Bateson and the GRCN team of guns, writes Jennifer Hay. The steward of the beat on day one was Roger Wilson and Kevin Wilson on day two; the judges were Greg Paterson, Hugh Paterson, Nicola Rudgard and Jennifer Hay. The chief steward was Wendy Coupar. We had a very sad end to our 2015 trial on this ground when David Wheatcroft died, so as a tribute, one of our colleagues from the shoot, Darren Ferrow, designed a lovely trophy to be awarded to the Guns’ Choice. Results 1 (& winner of the Shadowbrae Cup) Victoria Stanley with FTCh Patanavac Brough CoM (&…

AS REPORTED IN the March issue, three-year-old bitch Byrbwll Dotty, known as "Dot", and her owner Dai Ormond from Whitland, Dyfed, won the Kennel Club Cocker Spaniel Championship. The competition was held at the Abbeystead Estate in Lancashire, by the gracious permission of the Duke of Westminster, and saw a total of 42 dogs competing, demonstrating the increasing popularity of the working cocker spaniel in competitive gundog sports. The judges were Jeremy Organ, Ben Randall, Steve Wanstall and Graham West. Dai said: “I have been running dogs since 1981 and have previously had a second place. I am absolutely over the moon to have won the championship for the first time!’’ Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary, said: “We offer congratulations to Dai on his success with Dot – they clearly…

HUW STEPHENS of Barbury Shooting School, recently named in Shooting Gazette as one of the sport’s most influential under 40s, was crowned High Gun at the final of the Sunseeker Boodles Cup, held at Royal Berkshire Shooting School (RBSS). Huw achieved an impressive score of 22x25 in a final dominated by game shots, and despite being one clay short of the top prize (a yacht charter courtesy of Sunseeker London or a piece of jewellery from Boodles) he headed back to Barbury with a cheque for £5,000 - the largest ever cash prize in a British clay shooting competition. “I felt pretty confident going into the final. I have practiced the sequence many times and I always score in the twenties, but obviously the pressure of the final makes a…

Ronnie Rose’s name stands as a landmark in British conservation, not for his scientific prowess or academic brilliance, but for his ability to apply practical knowledge to real-life situations, writes Hugh Drummond. If some gardeners are known to possess green fingers then Ronnie Rose had the direct equivalent for deer, wildlife and game. For more than two centuries, Rose family members were employed by kings, queens, dukes, barons and numerous estate owners to manage wildlife. Rose was working at a time of great change for the uplands. Following the end of the Second World War, huge areas of Scotland and northern England were being planted with commercial woodlands, and the Forestry Commission was learning how to manage these huge new estates as they went along. Systems were still new and…

Q Earlier this year our Letters page featured the views of a beater who felt aggrieved at the way he and fellow beaters were treated on a day last season. He revealed “the shoot manager has actually said to beaters not to talk to the guns and he would prefer that we are not seen at all”. The letter drew some interesting comments. John Clements posted: “An interesting letter, I understand what he is saying and it is a shame that he feels like this. Has he spoken to the shoot manager? Is there another shoot nearby where he could go instead? There is something to the point that if he doesn’t like it: don’t go. If everyone else feels the same, the shoot will soon have problems, and might…

Dear Uncle Giles, I skipper a team of regular guns who visit a number of shoots together each season. Recently, after what must be described as a somewhat difficult morning – late arrivals, early snow, a beater’s spaniel getting caught in a fence – we were a dozen or so birds short of the agreed bag after the first drive following lunch. I was asked whether we would like to “....squeeze in another drive before tea?” It was just gone 3pm. Under all the circumstances, what’s a chap to do? REC, by e-mail. Uncle Giles writes You very discreetly avoid telling me what decision you came to which makes this question even more interesting. You describe the morning as “somewhat difficult”. Difficult, I agree. You probably lost a drive during…

For your chance to win a bottle of Taittinger Champagne for Picture of the Month, send us a team photograph or a picture of something unusual from your shoot. Send high-resolution images or prints with captions to Shooting Gazette Gallery, Time Inc (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF or email: will.hetherington@timeinc.com. Pictured are the guns from the day at Tregoyd which is featured on pages 40-49 of this issue, from left: Will Hetherington, Austin Cornish, Ben Brown, Charlie Browne, James Thurlow, Jonnie Dawson, Richard Buckingham, Matt Jewers & Duncan Nocton. The pickers-up from Tregoyd. Headkeeper Clive Hussell (centre) with James Baynham (left) & Sol Sanchez (right). Pictured are the team from a walk and stand day at the Genevers Farm, Uffington, south Lincs at the…

I personally don’t, but to hit a moving target it has to have lead whether you see it or not. The shot from an average cartridge would take approximately one tenth of one second from leaving the muzzles to reaching a target 40 yards away. Should the target be travelling at 40mph or 703 inches per second, it would have travelled 70 inches or approximately six feet in the one tenth of one second flight time of the shot. Therefore, if you don’t give some lead you will miss by six feet behind. If you pick up the bird with the muzzles pointing straight at it, assess its line and speed with that computer between your ears, pull past the target and most importantly keeping the muzzles moving until after…

“There were several thousand birds in the air at once, as I crouched down in the long grass.” For the last few years, I have been invited down in the dying days of the season to shoot on a keeper’s day in north Norfolk. When I first made the six-hour journey down from Galloway, I had never been to East Anglia and wasn’t sure what to expect. Given that it was late January, the days were short and I arrived after dark, catching up with friends and enjoying a drink or two before bed. I had absolutely no idea what the morning would hold. Before the dawn was even beginning to pale, we were up again and out beneath twinkling stars for a goose flight off the marsh – I…

The Lancaster owned by Warrand is certainly different but if you want to encounter a totally unorthodox stock, have a look at the stocks Boss & Co. built in the 1930s for an American customer, Claude Kress from New York. Kress owned a major retailing business comprising a chain of some 219 stores selling good quality but inexpensive products. He was an avid Boss over-under enthusiast with a penchant for eccentricity in gun design. He had his own shooting ground where he practised with his own ideas. He was a regular customer of Boss & Co. in the 1930s; he would order a gun to his own specific design, have it shipped over then try it out at his private ground. He would then “improve” on the design of the…

“When, oh when, will we see sense and ask for a change in the shooting seaons?” Another season is over and I have no complaints at all. The abundance of wild food sent shivers down many a gamekeeper’s spine in early autumn; food intake was low, birds were simply not seen and it is always difficult to fathom out how thousands of pheasants remain hidden, but we all know they can. The pigeons arrived and gave a helping hand with acorns and mast, and between them, deer and other nut and seed eating critters, the autumn harvest dwindled. Game came back on the feed and the coverts started to look promising, then really promising with the cold spell. Thanks to Jack Frost, we sailed home with relative ease. I say…

With the last vestiges of Storm Doris whipping through the valley Wittering Grange calls home in north Cambridgeshire, instructors Bruce Marks and Steve Wood had laid on some very tricky targets for any day – let alone one where I would be wielding a 28 bore gun. Sadly this was reflected in my success! It became clear very quickly in the field that, despite its almost magical lack of weight in the hand, this is not a gun one could swing around instinctively and hope to have much success with. The lightweight made it tempting to poke at the targets, when deliberate, careful and concentrated movements were the order of the day. It wasn’t until I really began to concentrate on the targets and think carefully about keeping the gun…

SPECIFICATIONS Ford Mustang 5.0 V8 GT Price: £36,345 Top speed: 155mph 0-62mph: 4.8 seconds Combined: 20.9mpg CO2 emission: 299g/km In the late 1950s, when most aircraft still had propellers, the Lockheed Martin Skunkworks in Burbank, California, started work on the SR-71. The titanium alloy technological tour de force that became the Blackbird is still the fastest, highest-flying aeroplane ever made at 3,000mph and nearly 80,000ft. It was developed by American engineers, who a few years earlier had actually invented powered flight and who, a few years later, put the first man on the moon. So it is a source of constant wonderment that, with a very few notable exceptions, American cars are, well, not to put too fine a point on it, rubbish. They have huge engines that develop very…

With the shooting season now over, many shoots will be assessing their performance and reviewing what changes, if any, could be made before the start of the next season. Savills and the GWCT recently launched their annual free Shoot Benchmarking Survey, which compares a shoot’s operations against similar shoots, aiding the identification of areas for improvement and refinement. Its overriding aim is to act as a financial management tool and to identify areas of strength and weakness in a shoot’s performance so corrective action can be taken as appropriate. The survey is now covering its seventh season and it is pleasing that each year participant numbers increase as more shoot owners and sporting tenants recognise the benefits of benchmarking their own business against others of comparable size. Some 141 shoots…

“There needs to be a recognition of the costs of putting on trials and also the huge costs of putting on a championship.” What do you enjoy most about a shoot day? "First and foremost it’s the people you’re with and the repartee that goes with that. I love having my dogs with me and I really enjoy the sport, especially if the wind blows. I shoot with 12 bores. I’ve had them since I was 21 and my father had them before me, so they have had a few cartridges through them." Have you ever run a dog? "I have had quite a lot of dogs running over the years but never under control! I always used to have a black bitch and a yellow dog, but nowadays I…

Q We have bought a labrador puppy and I am not sure what direction to take with the training. By this I mean we have a small shoot, but I like the idea of doing more with the dog as the shooting season is quite short. A THAT IS a very important and fundamental question to ask yourself when you are considering training a dog. What do you actually want to do with the dog, as this will dictate the type of approach and training needed further down the line and what to concentrate on? All people want an obedient dog that is steady, well balanced and social, and that is the bedrock of all training. You then have a number of choices open to you. Some people just want…

HOW TO WIN For your chance to win a Grizzly smock, email your high-resolution pictures to: katemaxim@outlook.com. Please put “Gundog Picture of the Month” in the subject line. The winner will be chosen by the Shooting Gazette judging panel. Good luck! The prize will only be posted to winners with a fixed UK postal address.…